National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1217
Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee
Inquiry: National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submitter: — mother and carer of an NDIS participant Date: 27 May 2026
To the Committee Secretary and members of the Committee,
I am the mother and carer of my son, , who is sixteen and has been an NDIS participant for twelve years. My husband is making his own submission; I wanted to make mine in my own words. I am writing because the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 threatens the very support I describe below, and I want the Committee to understand, from a mother, what that support has meant and what is at stake.
The support we have received through the NDIS has not only given our son a better start in life — it has given our family hope. Before this support, so many everyday tasks felt overwhelming for him, and for us. With the help of the NDIS, has been able to access speech therapy, behaviour therapy, and occupational therapy, each one playing a vital role in helping him learn skills that many take for granted — sitting upright, holding a pencil, using cutlery. These small steps have been life-changing for him.
The psychologist’s involvement has been just as important. They have helped make sense of his world in ways he can understand, and they have helped us understand him more deeply. We have been given tools, language, and strategies that allow us to support him with confidence, even on the hardest days.
Social stories have become a part of learning for . This takes time to word and break down an activity or explanation so he can make sense of what’s being explained or asked of him. They give him a way to process the world — slowly, gently, and in a way that feels safe. These moments of learning have taken time, patience, and countless repeated sessions with his therapists. But every repetition has mattered.
Daily challenges such as toilet training, social behaviour, hygiene, eating, and self-regulation are a continuous routine and much of our lives. While we are incredibly grateful to see how far has come, we know his journey is far from over. We still face significant challenges, especially around road safety and stranger danger — areas that require constant guidance, reassurance, and professional support.
Our therapists continue to walk beside us, helping learn skills that will one day give him more independence: tying shoelaces, showering, cooking, understanding greetings, recognising social cues, being aware of his surroundings, knowing how to keep an appropriate distance from others. These may seem like small things, but for , they are mountains we climb together, step by step.
We are profoundly grateful for every opportunity the NDIS has given our son. We know, without question, that would not be the boy he is today without the services he
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 Submission 1217
receives and the consistency of support behind him. As parents, our greatest fear is imagining a future where we are no longer here to advocate for him. Our greatest hope is that the support he receives continues for as long as he needs it — so he can live a life that is safe, supported, and full of possibility.
Why this Bill frightens me
Everything I have described depends on two things: that remains eligible, and that his support stays consistent. This Bill puts both at risk.
• Tighter eligibility (an estimated 160,000 participants affected). I understand the Government calls this slower growth rather than a cut, and that the reduction — around $37.8 billion against projected need to 2029–30, deepening to roughly $16 billion a year by then — still leaves the scheme growing overall. But ’s needs do not shrink because a growth rate is trimmed. My fear is that he becomes one of the 160,000 who lose access to the very therapies that built every skill above.
• New powers to reduce participant funding. Every gain has made came from consistency — countless repeated sessions, where every repetition mattered. Funding that can be cut or varied administratively destroys the stability that makes that work possible.
• Expanded automated decision-making. A child like cannot be understood by an algorithm. His progress is human, slow, and individual. Decisions about his support must be made by accountable people, with a real path to human review — not by a system, with the burden of fighting its errors falling on us.
• Go after dishonest providers, not families. If the concern is sustainability, pursue the providers who rort the scheme and the fraud that has been reported — not the families who use their funding carefully and the children who benefit most.
What I am asking
I ask the Committee to recommend that the Senate not pass this Bill in its current form; at a minimum, that the provisions tightening eligibility, allowing participant funding to be cut, and expanding automated decision-making be removed or substantially amended; and that the Government direct its efforts to provider integrity and fraud rather than to reducing support for participants. I am willing to appear before the Committee or provide further information if that would help.
Thank you for your understanding, your compassion, and your continued support.
Yours sincerely,